We just pulled the last of the English muffins off the rack, so we're switching gears. This weekend the Saturday Bake-Along is pizza, and there's a lane for every one of you. 🙌 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧. 🗽 New York Style is our anchor bake. Beginner-friendly, foldable, chewy, and it bakes in a regular home oven. No pizza steel required, no 900-degree wood oven. If you've never made pizza from scratch, this is your loaf. Mix the dough Friday, ball it, let it cold ferment in the fridge, and bake Saturday. You can also go same-day with a 2-hour rise if Friday gets away from you. 👉 https://skoo.ly/ny-style-pizza 🔥 Sourdough Neapolitan is the stretch track for anyone who wants the blistered, leopard-spotted crust and wants to put Vitale to work. Heads up: this one runs about 3 days. Build your levain now, today or tomorrow, so you're ready by Saturday. 20% inoculation, a long cold ferment, the works. This is the one that rewards patience. ⏳ 👉 https://skoo.ly/sd-neapolitan 👧 Kids Can Bake Personal Pan Pizza is for the family table. One 10-inch pizza per kid, they make their own sauce, shape their own crust, pick their own toppings. Same-day, no starter, done in an afternoon. If you've got little ones, pull up a chair and let them run the show. 🧒 👉 https://skoo.ly/kids-personal-pan 🍞 Two loaves, or in this case two pies, is the house standard. Pick your track, post your progress in the thread, and don't wait until Saturday to ask questions. The information is in the dough. 📸 Post your bakes. I want to see the crust, the crumb, the char, the kid-built chaos pizzas, all of it. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥

Some old-fashioned rolled oats, some peanut butter, chopped walnut, semi sweet chocolate chips and instead of vanilla extract, I thought I would use banana extract. Banana goes well with peanut butter and my goodness was that ever a good idea. Now it’s in the refrigerator to make it a little easier to handle.

A lot of you came from Facebook. I run Baking Great Bread at Home over there, 40,000+ members, and I love that community. But I want to be honest about something. On Facebook, you often get one of two things: criticism without substance or compliments without critique. Someone posts a loaf and the comments are either "Beautiful!" when there's clearly something going on, or unhelpful jabs that don't teach you anything. People mean well. They're trying to be kind. But kindness without honesty doesn't make you a better baker. This is a different place. Crust & Crumb Academy is exactly that: an academy. This is where you come to hone your skills and get better. That means when you ask for feedback, you're going to get it. Real feedback. Specific feedback. The kind that actually helps you improve. I'll always be kind. I'll always be encouraging. But you're not going to get empty platitudes from me. If I see something in your crumb, your shaping, your scoring, I'm going to tell you what it is and how to fix it. That's what coaches do. And I want you to do the same for each other. When someone posts a bake and asks for critique, give them something useful. Tell them what you see. Ask questions. Share what's worked for you. That's how we all get better. This is a teaching environment. We're not here to collect compliments. We're here to make better bakers. Perfection is not required. But growth is the goal. Let's get to work. ~Henry

Good morning, bakers. This is our home base for today. 🔥 Two versions, same bread, same 80% hydration, no shaping, no scoring, all flavor: 👉 Yeasted with Poolish: pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/rustic-italian-ciabatta 👉 Sourdough with Levain: pantry.bakinggreatbread.com/recipes/sourdough-italian-ciabatta (Swap these for the trackable community links from the recipe card share button.) 🧭 How to use this thread: 📸 Post your poolish or levain photo first thing. Show me what you woke up to. 💬 Drop questions in the comments as you go. Mixing, fermentolyse, coil folds, bulk rise, divide and cut, final proof, bake. Every stage. I’ll be in here all day. 🏷️ Tag your photos with the stage so we can all follow along.“Poolish ready,” “Coil fold #2,” “Just divided,” “In the oven,” “Crumb shot.” ⚠️ A few reminders before you start: 👀 Watch the dough, not the clock. 50 to 70% rise on bulk, not doubled. Doubled means overproofed, and ciabatta will go flat on you. 💧 Wet hands and a wet bench scraper are your best friends today. Don’t add flour to a wet dough. Trust it. 🎥 The coil fold video I posted yesterday is pinned. Watch it once before your first fold if you’ve never done one. 🔥 Steam matters. Cast iron skillet of hot water on the bottom rack, or a Brod & Taylor dome — either works. Don’t skip it. 💡 If your bake doesn’t come out picture-perfect, post it anyway. We learn more from honest bakes than from highlight reels. 🚀 Let’s go. Drop your starting photos below. Perfection is not required. Progress is. Henry ⭐🔥